Gisèle Pelicot held trial in public to force debate on rape culture, say lawyers

Gisèle Pelicot has become a feminist hero during the trial and is applauded by people every day on arrival in court in Avignon. Photograph: Guillaume Horcajuelo/EPA

Gisèle Pelicot’s decision to waive her anonymity and hold a public trial after her husband drugged her and invited dozens of men to rape her over a decade was made in the hope of ending rape culture and rape itself, her lawyers have argued.

Summing up in court in Avignon, southern France, after more than two months of hearings, Stéphane Babonneau, one of Gisèle Pelicot’s lawyers, said: “We don’t believe rape is an inevitability. This is a country of progress … Rape is not part of the future of society that we want.”